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Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

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Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#121

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

unixhero wrote: post #118
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes me so angry. The Norwegian school system is so, so inflexible and it ruins many lives each year. For me, the reason I was never allowed to set foot in a university was German, PE, and Norwegian literature. I was suffering from severe health issues and I didn't have the energy to do all the subjects I had no interest in. So I poured my focus into the subjects I enjoyed and/or were relevant to my future plan…

You could always apply for a programme Bsc and or Msc in Biology at a university in Australia. There are even agents throughout Europe who set you up with a proper application and assist in this. They get a kickback when you are admitted. Hard sciences degrees were really hard to get into in Norway too. Some times the best way to win is by not playing their game.

That's probably the way to go, yeah. But that was never an option for me economically. But absolutely, if anyone reading this is a Norwegian teenager in a similar situation to mine, the above is excellent advice if you have the means.

I am however lucky in that I taught myself programming since I was 14, so by the time they kicked me out of HS, I was capable of doing it professionally. But it took me years of networking to get to the point of even getting interviews for such jobs without having a HS degree. I did eventually get to where I can find somewhat intellectually rewarding work for a few months a year, when I'm healthy enough to do so. Whenever I try to do more I always crash and burn, so now I just try to work little as possible to stay sane.

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#122

Post by PringleBoy »

berkes wrote: post #72

> Danish pronunciation sounds extremely «blurred» in Norwegian (and Swedish) ears. It does to Dutch ears too. Just a few weeks ago, I passed through some tourist-infested area in Amsterdam. "Are these Swedish tourists drunk at this hour in morning already? Oh, wait, they are sober Danes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#123

Post by hhjinks »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #58
vages wrote: post #10

Norwegian written and pronounced language was actually changed because one digit was added to phone numbers. Here is the long story: Starting after World War Two, the government made an attempt at _merging_ the two written languages. The imagined outcome was named “Samnorsk” (unified Norwegian), led by Språknemnda (The Language committee). The work mainly consisted of changing the grammar of certain words in the bokm…

The failed samnorsk reform did have a silver lining. Around high school I figured out that because of it, a shocking amount of Nynorsk grammar was secretly optional and the Bokmål version was very often valid Nynorsk. So I started just writing my essays in Bokmål and then fixing the errors in post, so to speak. Initially my teacher tried to fail me for this, but she lost that battle. I vehemently hate Nynorsk, or at…

That's small time. Back in my day, like 15 years ago, there was an on-machine bokmål to nynorsk translation program, named Nyno31, if I remember correctly. It wasn't great, but it would secure you a C with zero effort. Teachers weren't in the know, so there was almost no risk of getting caught.

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#124

Post by actionfromafar »

vintermann wrote: post #119
actionfromafar wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the Sami arrived at the scene quite some time before the Norse though.

Maybe opening a can of worms here, but no... actually they/we didn't. 19th century scholars were happy to declare that the Sami were the original inhabitants of the north, but that had more with the fact that they preferred seeing themselves as the superior, colonizing culture, than with archeological and linguistic evidence. Being a native was not cool at all. It was awkward for these scholars to become gradually aw…

I didn't know that about the loan words, super interesting. I will read up on this topic. One thing I do know is that when adding genetic studies, it's also very complicated. The now Sami population at some point adopted a finno-ugric language. It wasn't only migration. (By the way the ILO 169 definition makes a lot of sense to me, because if you create a state entity, you now also have responsibilities towards the governed.)

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#125

Post by emj »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #121
unixhero wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could always apply for a programme Bsc and or Msc in Biology at a university in Australia. There are even agents throughout Europe who set you up with a proper application and assist in this. They get a kickback when you are admitted. Hard sciences degrees were really hard to get into in Norway too. Some times the best way to win is by not playing their game.

That's probably the way to go, yeah. But that was never an option for me economically. But absolutely, if anyone reading this is a Norwegian teenager in a similar situation to mine, the above is excellent advice if you have the means. I am however lucky in that I taught myself programming since I was 14, so by the time they kicked me out of HS, I was capable of doing it professionally. But it took me years of network…

Education seems a bit more flexible in Sweden, i.e. I failed my third modern language but still managed to get in to uni by taking other courses. Over all I think you describe the tribulations of us all even if we manage to do all the hoops through uni. I worked during high school and military service, but looking back I was not really ready for it.

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#126

Post by emj »

acje wrote: post #104
sakjur wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the right to left should be left to right in that last sentence? I was briefly confused by that and ended up reading your links (takk!) Danish still use a somewhat complex infix system for reading numbers (five and half fours is 75), and I find that very confusing as a Swede who didn’t grow up with it.

https://www.nrk.no/video/humor/danskene-forstaar-hverandre-i...

"The danish lanuage has collapsed" i.e. Kameloso is a foux shibboleth among my friends. I envy the danes they have a great shibboleth since no one can understand nor pronounce it anything of it.

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#127

Post by tamimio »

Languages are fascinating, I always try to learn few words in any language just for the fun of it and to see the sparkling eyes when I say these words in front of the native speakers, they appreciate that you learned some of their languages, except English, people get hostile if you don’t even speak the local accent.

Re: Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk

#128

Post by anthk »

downsplat wrote: post #117
boxed wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish for a bigger revolution in Swedish. It has been rather painful to experience how hard it is for my children to learn to do simple addition in their heads because the language is broken. It's easier to add 30 and 40 in your head for children, than it is to add 13 and 2! Because it's "3 ten and 4 ten" vs " and 2". The special word being "thirteen". The language is irregular for numbers up to 29 as 20 has a speci…

That's more or less how it works in English too... is it really that bad? Spanish and French also have special words for the teens, it's quite common in Europe and I've never heard of it being that difficult to learn. Some languages have it much worse... I think Hindi is pretty irregular up to 100 .

In Spanish, just 11 to 15.
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